Retreat? Lan Xiaobu sneered. Letting someone escape after entering his Reincarnation Bridge would make him utterly incompetent.
The Longevity Halberd transformed into a curtain of strikes, crashing down as the reincarnation patterns on the bridge formed a new passage.
Feeling the lifeless channel, despair flooded Great Dream Sage’s heart. He’d controlled nearly everyone with his dreams, yet now he faced death in another’s reincarnation illusion.
Though he knew a slim chance of survival remained, he’d never again be the Great Dream Sage of old.
Pfft! Blood mist erupted as Lou Yiyi was swept up by the halberd curtain and hurled into the reincarnation passage.
Silence fell, but Lan Xiaobu didn’t retract the bridge. Endless demons rushed in, vanishing into its charm. The bridge solidified at a visible pace, finally becoming a clear wooden structure.
With a gesture, Lan Xiaobu plucked a delicate tower from the gray river flowing beneath.
A quick scan with his divine sense, and he tossed it into his ring. It was Great Dream Sage’s treasure, Dimeng Tower—now his.
“Senior Lan, your strength is beyond what I can fathom,” Lou Tianhu said with a sigh as calm returned.
Yan Ling was stunned. From being dragged into Great Dream Sage’s dream, to Lan Xiaobu shifting them out, to slaying the sage—it felt like a dream itself.
He was a First-Turn Sage. Could he do this even at Ninth-Turn? Could he even reach Ninth-Turn? No matter how proud, Yan Ling knew these were just fantasies now.
Lan Xiaobu exhaled, “Just luck. If he’d grown further, killing him would’ve been tough.”
He wasn’t bluffing. Great Dream Sage’s plans had been thwarted by him repeatedly, yet he’d still reached this level. If he’d consumed the Rootless Divine Realm, unbound from Dimeng Tower Plaza, whether Lan Xiaobu could’ve beaten him with the bridge was uncertain.
Or perhaps, once Lan Xiaobu himself grew stronger, he could. But when would that be? By then, the Rootless Divine Realm would be gone.
Tian Gang Sage found it less shocking. Lan Xiaobu had scared off Ninth-Turn Sage Jin’e—why fuss over an unripe Great Dream Sage? If he were average, why would Xu Ge follow him?
As the plaza’s mist cleared, those outside spotted Lan Xiaobu and the others.
“Yan Ling?” Xing Wen said, surprised. He knew Yan Ling was here but hadn’t expected him to survive.
Yan Ling knew Xing Wen well. He’d once aimed to outshine him, claiming the top spot in the Rootless Divine Realm. But after seeing Lan Xiaobu, his confidence took a hit. Top dog here? A joke to real powerhouses.
Without Lan Xiaobu, he’d be less than an ant before Great Dream Sage. He’d survived only because the sage was distracted, peeling their emotions into demons.
“Congrats, Dao Lord, for taking down the ancient powerhouse Great Dream Sage,” Tu Wang said, stepping forward with a casual flattery. He knew his status and talent didn’t stand out among Lan Xiaobu’s followers. To earn favor, he had to play the loyal subordinate.
“Let’s go find Bei Suting, then head back to the Great Desolate Divine Realm,” Lan Xiaobu said, waving off Tu Wang’s antics.
After using the spatial array disc to shift Great Dream Sage’s dream space, he’d changed his mind. He’d planned to prove Fifth-Turn Sagehood via causality, but without a Causality Dao Scroll or exposure to one, it wasn’t feasible yet.
Zhen Ti cultivated the Minor Causality Scroll, akin to the Great Star Technique, but the Cosmic Dimension Model couldn’t quickly construct the Major Causality Scroll from it.
So, he’d prove space first, then time.
He’d once thought proving the Dao of Rules sufficed, no need for space and time. Now, he saw otherwise. Time and space were rules, but all rules stemmed from spacetime. Without them, where would other rules exist?
Among the cosmos’s rules, time and space ranked above the rest.
Proving rules let his Dao derive all rules, but not necessarily space and time.
Take reincarnation: he could build and control its passage, but not rewind spacetime.
Even the mightiest divine arts only glimpsed past spacetime scenes, not returned to them.
Proving time and space might let him truly rewind spacetime.
He lacked their Dao scrolls, but that was fine. He had the spatial array disc—a primordial treasure, no less valuable than a scroll. With it, he could prove space.
“Bei Suting’s not in the Rootless Divine Realm,” Lou Tianhu said quickly, hearing Lan Xiaobu.
“Where’d she go?” Bei Ji asked eagerly. He’d come to find her.
Lou Tianhu replied, “Bei Suting’s talent is strong. As cosmic rules stabilized, she used her resources to reach First-Turn Sagehood. She left the Rootless Divine Realm two hundred years ago. She invited me along, but I didn’t want to leave. She said she was heading to the Great Desolate Divine Realm, likely to find Senior Lan.”
“Dao Lord, let’s hurry back. Maybe my sister’s there already,” Bei Ji urged.
“Good,” Lan Xiaobu said, eager to prove Fifth-Turn and return quickly.
“But the void passage to the Great Desolate Divine Realm is gone. I suspect Great Dream Sage had a hand in that, cutting off the Rootless Divine Realm from the outer void, turning it into his dream corner,” Qian Zhi Sage said with a sigh.
Tu Wang snorted, “No doubt about it. Lou Yiyi’s that type—he thought it, he did it.”
Lan Xiaobu frowned. Without a passage, returning would be tricky. He wasn’t worried about getting back, just the time it’d take.
Yan Ling spoke up, “I heard the Reverse Flow Space in Bu Zhi Domain, once torn, leads to another realm—also a divine one. Not sure if it’s the Great Desolate Divine Realm.”
“That place is no joke. Most cultivators who get near get sucked into the reverse vortex,” Chen Hu added, having been there.
Lan Xiaobu decided, “Forget Reverse Flow Space. If it’s not the Great Desolate Divine Realm, it could take years to find it. I know another spot to reach it. Senior Lou, Chen Hu, want to come?”
He planned to head to the Seven Realms Desert, which not only linked to the Great Desolate Divine Realm but held the Three Realms Stone. With the First and Second Realm Stones already, he had to claim the third.
His cultivation was still low. At Seventh-Turn or above, his divine sense could likely pierce divine realm boundaries, scanning the void for the Great Desolate Divine Realm.
Lou Tianhu chuckled, “I’m used to this place. I’ll skip the trip.”
Chen Hu, though, said firmly, “Dao Lord, I’ll follow you to the Great Desolate Divine Realm.”
He felt his cultivation stagnating; staying here meant slow progress.
“Alright, let’s go together,” Lan Xiaobu said, summoning the Reincarnation Cauldron.
Xing Wen bowed quickly, “Thanks, Dao Lord Lan, for resolving Dimeng Tower’s threat to the Rootless Divine Realm.”
Seeing Xing Wen’s gratitude, Yan Ling followed suit. It was genuine—if Lan Xiaobu hadn’t come, Great Dream Sage escaping the tower would’ve overrun the realm with demons, turning it into his dream fragment. The Rootless Divine Realm would’ve vanished from the cosmos.
Besides, if Lou Tianhu called him “Senior,” what was Yan Ling, a mere First-Turn Sage, next to him?
Lan Xiaobu nodded, “The Rootless Divine Realm belongs to everyone. You’re both First-Turn Sages—guard it well. Like our Great Desolate Divine Realm, unite its strength for peace.”
Neither was a realm’s Dao Lord, so he kept it brief.
“We’ll heed Dao Lord’s wise words,” Xing Wen and Yan Ling bowed again.
Lan Xiaobu had no interest in the Rootless Divine Realm now—a boon for them.
“Let’s go,” he said. Once everyone boarded, the Reincarnation Cauldron rippled space and vanished.
